Method for storing and reproducing a voice message in a mobile telephone

ABSTRACT

A method for managing voice messages in a mobile telephone, including a voice message store mode and a voice message reproduce mode. In the voice message store mode, the remaining memory capacity is calculated first, and, if there is sufficient memory, the voice message begins to be stored while the length of the currently storing voice message is displayed. At predetermined time intervals, the remaining memory capacity is calculated again and the displayed length is updated. If it is determined that there is insufficient memory capacity, a memory full message is displayed. When the voice message is completely stored, storage-related information is calculated and stored with the voice message. In the voice reproduce mode, the last stored message is found and then reproduced while the time remaining in the stored message is displayed. The time remaining is updated at predetermined time intervals. If scroll key input is detected, the next-to-last previous voice message is found and reproduced. When the reproduction is complete, the user may choose to listen to it again or listen to the next-to-last or next previous voice message.

PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/473,815,and filed Dec. 28, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,440, and claims priorityto an application entitled “Method for Storing and Reproducing VoiceMessage in Mobile Telephone” filed in the Korean Industrial PropertyOffice on Dec. 30, 1998 and assigned Serial No. 98-60744, the contentsof which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a method for managing a voicemessage in a mobile telephone, and in particular, to a method forstoring a voice message in a memory and reproducing the voice messagestored in the memory.

2. Description of the Related Art

The voice message function currently adopted in mobile telephones hasseveral limitations in storing a voice message in a memory. For example,in the Samsung SDH-600 or SDH-800, the total length of all voicemessages is limited to 2 minutes and the number of the voice messages islimited to 4, so that each voice message is 30 seconds in length.Therefore, the user must consider all these limitations when storing avoice message, which is annoying.

In addition, when the user desires to listen to a certain voice messagestored in the memory, the user produces the intended voice message byselecting one of the labels associated with the stored voice messages,displayed on the display of the mobile telephone. However, it isdifficult to accurately select a desired voice message using only thelabels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a methodfor minimizing the limitations on a user when storing a voice message.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method forenabling the user to determine whether to reproduce the whole voicemessage by reproducing some of the voice message.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method for storing a voice message in a mobile telephonehaving a memory for storing a voice message. The method comprisesdetermining whether a voice message store mode is set by a user;calculating, if the voice message store mode is set, the remainingmemory capacity; if the remaining memory capacity is sufficient to storethe voice message, starting storing a voice message in the memory whilesimultaneously displaying the length of the stored voice message; aftera predetermined time interval, calculating the remaining memory capacityagain, and updating the displayed length of the stored amount of thevoice message; if the remaining memory capacity is sufficient to storethe voice message, determining whether storing the voice message iscompleted, and, if storing the voice message is not completed, returningto the third step; if the remaining memory capacity is insufficient,displaying a memory full message; and upon completion of storing thevoice message, calculating storage-related information and storing thestorage-related information in the memory as voice message storageinformation for the stored voice message.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method for reproducing a voice message in a mobile telephonehaving a memory for storing voice message storage-related information.The method comprises determining whether a voice message reproduce modeis set by a user; if the voice message reproduce mode is set, accessingthe memory to find the last stored voice message by consulting thestored times of respective voice messages; reproducing the found voicemessage while simultaneously displaying the remaining time left in thevoice message; after a predetermined time interval, updating theremaining time left being displayed, determining if a scroll key isinput, and, if the scroll key is input, finding the next voice messageand returning to the third step to reproduce the next voice message; ifthe scroll key is not input, determining whether the reproduction iscomplete; if the reproduction is complete, determining if the userwishes to hear the message again; if the user wishes to hear it again,returning to the third step, and, if not, determining whether it was thelast message; and if it was the last message, ending the sequence, and,if not, finding the next phone message and returning to the third step.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent from the following detaileddescription when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a mobile telephone to which thepresent invention is applicable;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a map of a voice memory according tothe preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for storing a voicemessage according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;and

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for reproducing a voicemessage according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the followingdescription, well-known functions or constructions are not described indetail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a mobile telephone to which the presentinvention is applied. Referring to FIG. 1, a central processing unit(CPU) 10 calculates a remaining memory capacity, and controls thestoring and reproducing of a voice message. A first memory 20,preferably a ROM (Read Only Memory), stores a control program andinitial service data of the mobile telephone. A second memory 30,preferably a RAM (Random Access Memory), temporarily stores various datagenerated during operation of the mobile telephone. A third memory 40, avoice memory, stores various data required to manage the storage ofvoice messages. A baseband processor 50 processes a baseband signal. Aradio transceiver 60 connected between the baseband processor 50 and anantenna, demodulates a radio signal received via the antenna andmodulates a radio signal to be transmitted via the antenna. A key inputunit 70 has various keys including those for the storing and reproducingof voice messages, such as a scroll key for proceeding to the next voicemessage. A display 80, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), displays thestoring or reproducing state of the voice message, under the control ofthe CPU 10. A vocoder 90 processes a voice signal input from amicrophone (MIC) 100 to provide the processed voice signal to thebaseband processor 50, and provides a baseband signal from the basebandprocessor 50 to a speaker (SPK) 110. More specifically, the vocoder 90converts an analog voice signal input from the microphone 100 to adigital PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) signal using an internalanalog-to-digital converter, and then compresses the PCM signal intopacket data. Preferably, the vocoder 90 uses 8 Kbps QCELP (Qualcomm CodeExcited Linear Predictive coding) for a CDMA (Code Division MultipleAccess) phone, or uses RPE-LTP (Regular Pulse Excitation with Long TermPrediction) for a GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) phone.The vocoder 90 provides the CPU 10 with the output packet data. The CPU10 provides the third memory with the address where the output packetdata is stored and the packet data output from the third memory istransmitted to the vocoder 90. Upon receipt of a reproduce command fromthe user, the CPU 10 reads the packet data corresponding to the addressin the third memory 40, converts the read packet data to a PCM signal,and provides the converted PCM signal to a digital-to-analog converterin the vocoder 90. The digital-to-analog converter converts the inputPCM signal to an analog signal, and then outputs it as an audible soundthrough the speaker 110.

FIG. 2 shows a map of the voice memory 40 of FIG. 1, according to thepreferred embodiment of the present invention. A nonvolatile memory,such as an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read OnlyMemory), can be used for the third memory 40. The third memory 40includes several fields for storing voice data, the stored time of thevoice message, the length of the stored voice message, the memorycapacity used for storing the voice message, and the remaining memorycapacity. The stored time of the message is the time at which themessage was stored, and it is used to indicate the order of the voicemessages.

FIG. 3 shows a procedure for storing a voice message according to thepreferred embodiment of the present invention. The CPU 10 scans the keyinput unit 70 in step 3 a, to determine whether the phone has been setto the voice message store mode by the user. If the voice message storemode is set, the CPU 10 calculates a remaining memory capacity bysubtracting the used memory capacity from the total memory capacity, instep 3 b.

In step 3 c, the CPU 10 analyzes the calculation results to determinewhether there is enough remaining memory capacity to store the voicemessage. If it is determined that the remaining memory capacity isinsufficient to store the voice message, the CPU 10 displays a“memory-full” message on the display 80, in step 31.

However, if it is determined that the remaining memory capacity issufficient to store the voice message, the CPU 10 starts storing thevoice message in the third memory 40 while simultaneously displaying thelength of the stored voice message on the display 80, in step 3 d. Instep 3 e, the CPU 10 determines whether a predetermined time period,such as a second, has elapsed or not. When the predetermined time periodhas elapsed, the CPU 10 calculates the remaining memory capacity andupdates the length of the stored voice message, being displayed on thedisplay 80, in step 3 f.

In step 3 g, the CPU 10 analyzes the calculation results to determinewhether there is enough remaining memory capacity. If the remainingmemory capacity is insufficient, the CPU 10 displays a “memory-full”message on the display 80 in step 3 k. Here, the length of the voicemessage is previously determined, for example, as 10 seconds. Toincrease the storing and reproducing efficiency, it is necessary toallocate a memory capacity of 10 seconds even when storing a voicemessage of 1 second. Therefore, when the remaining memory capacity isless than 10 seconds, it is necessary to inform the user of thememory-full state. Then, the user can either delete a previously storedmessage or quit storing the present voice message.

However, if the remaining memory capacity is sufficient, the CPU 10determines in step 3 h whether the voice message is completely stored.There are many ways the CPU 10 might determine if the phone message iscomplete. For example, the CPU 10 may determine that the phone messageis complete when either the user presses a key indicating the end of themessage or a predetermined time limit for message length runs out. Ifthe voice message is not completed, the CPU 10 returns to the step 3 e.However, if storing the voice message is complete, the CPU 10 calculatesstorage-related information in step 3 i. The storage-related informationincludes the stored time of the voice message, the length of the storedvoice message, and the memory capacity used for storing the voicemessage. Thereafter, the CPU 10 stores the calculated results in thethird memory 40 as voice message storage information in step 3 j.

FIG. 4 shows a procedure for reproducing a voice message according tothe preferred embodiment of the present invention. The CPU 10 scans thekey input unit 70 in step 4 a, to determine whether the phone has beenset to the voice message reproduce mode by the user. If the voicemessage reproduce mode is set, the CPU 10 accesses the third memory 40to detect the last stored voice message by consulting the stored time ofthe respective voice messages, in step 4 b. Thereafter, in step 4 c, theCPU 10 starts reproducing the detected last voice message andsimultaneously displays the remaining time left on the display 80.Subsequently, the CPU 10 determines in step 4 d whether a predeterminedtime period has elapsed or not. When the predetermined time period haselapsed, the CPU 10 updates the remaining time left being displayed onthe display 80, in step 4 e. For example, when the length of the storedvoice message is 30 seconds, the CPU 10 displays the remaining time lefton a count-down basis, such as ‘30 seconds’→‘29 seconds’→‘28 seconds’ .. . →‘0 second’.

Thereafter, in step 4 f, the CPU 10 scans the key input unit 70 todetermine whether a scroll key is input or not. When the scroll key isinput (or pressed), the CPU 10 accesses the third memory 40 to find thenext voice message in step 4 g, and returns to step 4 c to reproduce thenewly found voice message while displaying the remaining time left.

However, upon failure to detect the scroll key input in step 4 f, theCPU 10 determines in step 4 h whether reproduction of the voice messageis completed or not. If reproduction is completed, the CPU 10 scans thekey input unit 70 in step 4 i to determine whether the user intends tolisten to the voice message again. If the user intends to listen to thevoice message again, the CPU 10 returns to step 4 c. Otherwise, the CPU10 determines in step 4 j whether the reproduced voice message is thelast voice message in memory. If the reproduced voice message is thelast voice message, the CPU 10 ends the procedure. Otherwise, the CPU 10proceeds to step 4 g to find the next voice message stored in the thirdmemory 40.

This method can also be used when deleting the voice messages.

In this manner, the user can store the increased number of voicemessages without the various limitations in the prior art. In addition,when reproducing the voice messages, it is possible to detect a desiredvoice message more rapidly, without the need for text labels.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to acertain preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asdefined by the appended claims.

1. A method for reproducing a voice message in a mobile telephone havinga memory for storing a voice message and storage-related information,the method comprising the steps of: (a) determining whether a voicemessage reproduce mode is set by a user; (b) after and in response todetermining that the voice message mode is set by the user, accessingstored times of respective voice messages, comparing the stored times,and finding, based on the comparison, the last stored voice message; (c)reproducing the found voice message while simultaneously displaying aremaining time left in the found voice message; (d) after apredetermined time interval, updating the remaining time beingdisplayed; (e) determining whether a scroll key is input whilereproducing the found voice message; and (f) finding a next voicemessage and returning to step (c) to reproduce the next voice message,if the scroll key is input, wherein the message is reproduced withoutentering a key separate from the scroll key.
 2. The method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the remaining time is displayed on a count-down basis.3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:(g) upon failure to detect the scroll key input, determining whetherreproducing is completed; (h) upon completion of reproducing,determining whether the user intends to listen to the voice messageagain; (i) returning to step (c) if the user intends to listen to thevoice message again, and if not, determining whether the reproducedvoice message is a last voice message; (j) ending the reproducingoperation if the reproduced voice message is the last voice message; and(k) finding a next voice message and returning to step (c) to reproducethe next voice message, if the reproduced voice message is not the lastvoice message.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step ofcomparing the stored times comprises the step of, after and in responseto determining that the voice message mode is set by the user, comparingthe stored times automatically without an additional user input.
 5. Themethod as claimed in claim 4, wherein the step of reproducing the foundvoice message comprises the step of, after and in response todetermining that the voice message mode is set by the user, reproducingthe found voice message automatically without an additional user input.